Beijing: Trade between India and China is set to touch an all-time high of USD 135.98 billion in 2022, while New Delhi’s trade deficit with Beijing crossed the USD 100 billion mark for the first time, according to data released by China. , Customs on Friday. Annual Chinese customs data said that total India-China trade for 2022 is set to surpass USD 125 billion a year ago to 135.98 billion, registering a growth of 8.4 per cent. China’s exports to India rose to US$118.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.7 percent. During 2022, China’s imports from India are set to decline to USD 17.48 billion, a year-on-year decline of 37.9 per cent. India’s trade deficit stood at $101.02 billion crossing the 2021 figure of $69.38 billion. This is the first time that the trade deficit, a serious concern consistently expressed by India, has crossed the USD 100 billion mark.
In 2021, total trade with China is set at USD 125.62 billion, a year-on-year growth of 43.32 per cent, crossing the USD 100 billion mark for the first time. The trade deficit in 2021 was USD 69.56 billion as India’s imports from China increased by 46.14 per cent to reach USD 97.59 billion. India’s exports to China to grow by 34.28 per cent to reach USD 28.03 billion in 2021. Trade between the two countries continued to boom despite border tensions following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020.
According to an official brief on trade posted on the website of the Indian Embassy in Beijing, the rapid expansion of India-China bilateral trade since the beginning of this century has led China to emerge as India’s largest goods trade partner by 2008. has prompted. In the last decade, the bilateral trade between the two countries has registered an exponential growth.
From 2015 to 2021, India-China bilateral trade is set to grow by 75.30 per cent, with an average annual growth of 12.55 per cent. Officials say that while trade with China thrives on the availability of cheap Chinese goods to India, it has resulted in India’s ever-increasing trade deficit with any other country.
“Our trade deficit concerns are two-pronged. One is the actual size of the deficit. The other is the fact that the imbalance has been steadily increasing year on year,” the embassy brief said. “The widening trade deficit with China can be attributed to two factors: the narrow basket of commodities, mostly primary, that we export to China and second, market access barriers for most of our agricultural products and areas where We are as competitive as pharmaceuticals, IT/ITeS,” it said.
Despite making statements to address India’s concerns, China has not taken any major steps to open up the pharma and IT sectors to Indian exports despite widespread demand.
The demand for Indian cancer drugs in China was so high that a film highlighting the plight of cancer patients and their efforts to obtain drugs from India impressed the Chinese public.
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In recent years, there have been reports that China has officially approved some Indian drugs, but not much has been heard about their access to the market. On the decline in Indian exports to China, the Indian Embassy summarized “Our major exports include iron ore, cotton, copper, aluminum and diamonds/natural gems”.
“Over time, these raw material-based items have been overshadowed by Chinese exports of machinery, power-related equipment, telecommunication equipment, organic chemicals and fertilizers. We will continue to engage the Chinese side to resolve market access issues. continue,” it said.
Data released by Chinese customs on Friday said China’s global trade will contract in 2022 despite weak US and European demand and the periodic shutdown of several cities, including Shanghai, due to COVID-19 controls. posted a trade surplus of USD 877.6 billion. ,
According to customs data, China’s total exports are expected to grow by seven percent in 2022 and imports by 1.1 percent, while China’s trade surplus last year was USD 877.6 billion.
China’s exports rose to USD 3.95 trillion, down from a 2021 high of 29.9 per cent, while imports grew by 1.1 per cent to USD 2.7 trillion, compared to a 30.1 per cent increase in the previous year.